Re: World Club Challenge - Wigan v Penrith : Fri Feb 23, 2024 3:11 pm
Itchy Arsenal wrote:
I’m in that boat. If Havard, Thompson and Walters were playing I’d be more upbeat. The one thing that makes me think that there is a chance of a win is Peet. He’s a smart lad and I’m pretty sure that he will have a couple of surprises up his sleeve.
When we've been beaten in these in previous years we've pointed to a lack of size and it's what makes those losses so frustrating. You have 2 huge lads in Havard and Walters missing (as well as probably the next in line after Walters in Nsemba) and Thompson is that sort of quick, powerful forward that makes up for any lack in physcial size. They'd make a pretty big difference I think but the losses might not be terminal (keeping Havard, Nsemba and Walters hidden from NRL eyes might not hurt in the long run mind).
One thing I would like to think is that we can have another couple of cracks at this over the lifetime of this team/squad (the next 5 years or so) and while we all want to win tomorrow, this feels like the start of this teams journey and the experience will help whatever the result. Saints win last year felt like something they'd built towards for 5 years, with all their success and guys like Roby and LMS retiring at the end of that season. The feel around this game for Wigan is a bit different IMO.